How to rhyme in Esperanto

Rhyming in Esperanto is easier than in many other languages: the stress always falls in the same place, and the spelling shows the pronunciation. Here are the rules and a few tips. The examples are Esperanto words.

Stress decides

In Esperanto the stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable: koro, amiko, Esperanto. The rhyme starts at the stressed vowel and runs to the end of the word. RiVo calls this part the rhyme key: koro → -oro, amiko → -iko.

Perfect rhymes

Two words rhyme perfectly if they sound the same from the stressed vowel on: koro – doloro – fervoro. The same grammatical ending is not enough: tago and domo both end in -o, but they do not rhyme because their rhyme keys differ (-ago, -omo).

Rich rhymes

If the consonant before the stressed vowel is the same too, the rhyme is rich: amoro – humoro, stelo – ŝtelo. In stelo – velo those consonants differ (t, v), so it is a perfect but not a rich rhyme. Rich rhymes sound stronger and are popular in classical poetry.

Grammatical rhymes

Words with the same suffix and ending rhyme automatically: lernejo – vendejo – kuirejo, kantado – legado. Such rhymes are perfectly correct, but many poets consider them poor because they are too easy. Rhymes between different roots or parts of speech sound fresher: stelo – velo – ĉielo.

Elision

In poetry you may replace the noun ending -o with an apostrophe: kor', dolor'. The stress then falls on the last syllable, so dolor' rhymes with kor' and for. Elision is allowed by the Fundamento, but use it sparingly.

Assonance and near rhymes

An assonance shares only the vowels from the stressed syllable on: koro – tono. A near rhyme has similar consonants, for example a voiced and voiceless pair: tago – lako. Both work well in song lyrics and modern poetry.

Count the syllables

Every vowel (a, e, i, o, u) makes one syllable; j and ŭ are not vowels. So aŭ‧to has two syllables and fi‧ŝi‧sto three. For a song or poem with a fixed metre, the syllable counter counts the syllables and shows the rhyme scheme of your text.

Where to find rhymes

• The rhyme index lists all rhyme groups and rhymes for common words.
• The rhyme finder finds rhymes for any word, including generated forms and assonances.
• The inverse dictionary sorts all words by their ending.